Workbook final

once a week but at least every 10 school days, to develop strategies to support teachers in meeting

students’ needs and to reduce barriers to students’ success in learning (6.10).

The Superintendent has to ensure that members of the district- and school-based Education Support

Services (ESS) Teams adhere to the standards of practice established by EECD for their respective positions

and that education support teachers have the necessary skills and support minimum 60% of their time

classroom teachers (6.11), must ensure funding allocated for Education Support Services is used solely for

that purpose (6.12) and must monitor and evaluate the performance of each school based on appropriate

performance indicators for inclusive education (6.13).

Section 8 allows a District Education Council to develop policies and procedures that are consistent with, or

more comprehensive than, existing provincial policies.

NNOVATION

The policy attempts to address system-wide change to ensure that public schools are inclusive. Other existing solutions

have relied on the leadership and commitment of local actors (educators, school principals and district superintendents)

to implement strong inclusive practices. This did lead to a certain success but was dependent on the on-going

commitment of these local actors and leaders. Where they were not in place, implementation of inclusive practices was

difficult to achieve. With the policy, all school personnel is aware of the expectations of an inclusive education system.

The establishment of required standards of school practice raised the profile of inclusion, which will significantly

strengthen the adoption of inclusive practices. The policy is clear and easy to follow. It is significant that it contains

important statements that outline what is expected of schools with respect to inclusive education, including article

6.2.2, which states that the practices of segregated education and alternative education programmes must not occur –

strong statements which ensure that students are placed in neighbourhood schools. Many of the policy’s components

are fundamental to achieve inclusion in education. These include clear goals and principles for an inclusive system,

expectations that children will be educated in common learning environments, clear guidelines around individualized

planning, and clearly established rules for student withdrawal from the common learning environment. Furthermore,

the policy was not brought in without a corresponding action plan to support implementation of its inclusion mandate.

The new policy has no mention of “exceptional students”, “students with exceptionalities”, “students with special

education needs”, “students with special needs”, “special education” or any other labels invented by school systems to

enable them to continue to discriminate against our children with Intellectual Disabilities and others, and one of the

formative elements is the recognition of the need for more personalized and individualized education for ALL students.

Stopping labelling, means that the focus shifts towards systemic change.

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As of 2012, are now more than 1,000 teachers and other professionals working as support teachers in New

Brunswick schools. There are an additional 2,400 educational assistants and para-professionals. That makes a

total of about 3,400 staff members who are in our schools to address the challenges of teaching a diverse

student population.